Mythbusters: Is It Possible to Make a Comprehensive College Tennis List on My Own?

February 13, 2014 | By Ricky Becker
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Many people feel overwhelmed when trying to create a list of tennis schools for their child. I have spoken with many who fear that they are missing out on a “diamond in the rough” college. There is a misconception out there that you need to hire a full-fledged recruiting service with all the add-ons to simply make a top-notch college list.

Fortunately, this is not the case. Over the last 10 years, JuniorTennisConsulting has gone through the college rosters of every Division I, II and III school and recorded the junior ranking of every freshman player on the roster. These hours of data have been put into a spreadsheet alongside average SAT/ACT score of the school, amount of international players, location of the school and a direct link to the team home page. This spreadsheet is known as the “JTC Recruiting Pages.”

People often ask, “What ranking do you need for this school?” or “How high does my ranking have be for Division I?” I have included a table below of different ranking groupings sometimes known as different “Star levels” on tennisrecruiting.net. What you see here are what three colleges in Division I, II and III that have had the most freshman players in each junior ranking tier over the last 10 years.

Junior National Ranking of Male Freshman (D1) D1Schools with the Most in Each Category   Junior National Ranking of Female Freshman (D1)  D1Schools With the Most in Each Category
1-10

Texas A&M (9), Virginia (8), Florida/Stanford (7)

1-10

UCLA (14), Stanford (12), USC (10)

11-25

Harvard (7), Illinois (6), Florida State (6), Stanford (6)

11-25

North Carolina (12), Arizona State (7), Michigan (6), Princeton (6), Notre Dame (6), Tennessee (6)

26-75

UPenn (12), Illinois (12), Notre Dame (11)

26-75
 

Boston College (11), Brown (11), Michigan (10), Penn (10), Yale (10), Syracuse (10)

76-200

Cornell (16), Furman (14), Navy (14)

76-200

Cornell (17), Brown (14), Dartmouth/Army (13)

201-350

Wofford (12), Furman (11), Bucknell (11)

201-350

Army (13), Rhode Island (10), Air Force/Presbyterian (9)

351-525

Creighton (9), Lafayette (8), IUPUI (8)

351-525

Army (11), Bradley (9), Presbyterian (9)

525+

Fordham (12), LaSalle (10), Portland St. (10), St. Joe’s (10), IUPUI (10)

525+

Lafayette (10), Weber State (7), Four Schools With Six

Foreign Players

Farleigh Dickinson (25), Troy (21), Tennessee Tech (19)

Foreign Players

Sacramento State (23), Sam Houston State (17), Four Schools With 16

 

Junior National Ranking of Male Freshman (D2) D2 Schools With The Most in Each Category Junior National Ranking of Female Freshman (D2) D2 Schools With the Most in Each Category
1-100

Rollins (3), Cal-San Diego (2), Eight Schools With One

1-100

Abilene Christian (4), Lynn (2), Incarnate Word (2)

101-225

Cal-San Diego (7), Florida Gulf-Coast (5), Abilene Christian (4)

101-225

Grand Valley State (5), Kennesaw State (4), St. Edwards (4)

226-350

Cal-San Diego (9), Abilene Christian (5), S. Illinois-Edwardsville (5)

226-350

Cal-San Diego (11), Erskine (8), Three Schools With Six

351-525

Sonoma State (8), Cal-San Diego (7), Florida Southern (6)

351-525

Cal-San Diego (12), Mesa State (7), Four Schools With Six

526+ Bentley (11), Carson-Newman (11), Grand Valley State (11), Truman State (11), Seattle (11) 526+

Incarnate Word (7), Mercyhurst (6), Montana St.-Billings (6)

Unranked

Minnesota St.-Morris (24), Nebraska-Omaha (20), Morningside (20)

Unranked

New Haven (28), Minnesota St.-Morris (26), East Stroudsberg (24)

Foreign Players

Lynn (20), Augusta State (19), Northwood (19)

Foreign Players

Augusta State (17), California of PA (16), Delta State (16)

       

 

Junior National Ranking of Male Freshman (D3) D3 Schools With the Most in Each Category Junior National Ranking of Female Freshman (D3) D3 Schools With the Most in Each Category
1-75

Emory (3), Claremont-Mudd Scripps (3), Wash U./Amherst (2)

1-75

Amherst (3), Emory (1), Washington and Lee/Moravian (1)

76-200

Emory (14), Middlebury (12), Williams (11)

76-200

Williams (13), Amherst (12), Johns Hopkins (10)

201-350

Wash U.-St. Louis (15), Claremont-Mudd Scripps (14), Redlands (13)

201-350

Johns Hopkins (12), Amherst (12), Emory/Trinity (TX) 11

351-525

Redlands (15), Mary Washington (14), Gustavus Adolphus (14)

351-525

Washington and Lee (12), Texas-Tyler (11), Mary Washington (9)

526+

Gustavus Adolphus (20), Haverford (19), Birmingham Southern (16)

526+

Texas-Tyler (11), Sewanee (11), Bates (9)

Unranked

Cal Tech. (33), Haverford (30), Penn State–Altoona (29)

Unranked

Bryn Mawr (38), North Central (38), Wesleyan (NE)/Carthage (32)

Foreign Players

Wesleyan (NC) (23), Averett (12), NYU/Suffolk (MA) (8)

Foreign Players

CUNY-Baruch (11), Mount Union (10), Averett (10)

                    

In a few cases, schools are listed in more than one category. This means a lot of players are on the team. It is also safe to say, these schools “want” the higher ranking but will settle for the lower one if necessary. The hours upon hours of research make the JTC Recruiting Pages a very worthy investment. Happy hunting!


Ricky Becker
Centercourt
USTA NTC

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